


The Magician's Apprentice

by Sorcha_Gaia (Sorcha_Luxor)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s10e14 The Shroud, Established Relationship, Hot Sex, M/M, Romance, Stargate SG-1 Compliant, season 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 23:00:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorcha_Luxor/pseuds/Sorcha_Gaia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Daniel unravel some issues after "The Shroud."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Magician's Apprentice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for paian on LiveJournal for jd_ficathon. Requested: established relationship, NC-17. Optional request: romance. Forbidden: giggling and waggling eyebrows.

“Jack!”

Ahhh, the dulcet tones of his sweet, biddable lover. “Yes, Daniel?” Jack answered mildly, leaning his hip against the bedroom lintel. The room was flooded with late afternoon sunlight, sparking blond highlights from Daniel’s bed-mussed hair.

“This … this …. “ Daniel gestured at the bed in which he was securely ensconced and waved a corner of the comforter at Jack. “This isn’t the SGC!”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “You noticed? Well done.” Jack turned to head back to the kitchen.

“JACK!”

“What??” Jack turned again, contemplating the picture of Daniel, tucked into his bed in his Washington, DC house, propped on pillows and glaring myopically.

“Why am I here? Why aren’t I in the SGC infirmary? Landry and Lam are going to have kittens … “

“You’re here because I want you here,” Jack said calmly. “And remind me to give kudos to Marks for beaming you actually under the covers, instead of just on top of the bed.”

Daniel’s eyebrows rose. “And what did they say about those coordinates?”

“What coordinates?” Jack asked, staring blank-faced at Daniel.

Daniel flung himself back on said pillows with an exasperated huff. “Why. Am. I. HERE?”

“Didn’t I just answer that? Because I want you here. Being a general should garner me some perks. Now just relax and I’m going to bring you some tea.”

“TEA?” The shout echoed after Jack as he made hasty steps towards the kitchen and the cup of steeping tea. “COFFEE, PLEASE!”

“NOT HAPPENING!”

There was the sound of what was quite possibly a pillow hitting the bedroom door.

After several minutes of preparing the tea just the way Daniel liked it (when he actually drank tea), Jack made his amiable way back to his bedroom, loins girded to deal with a peevish, Priorized-recovering Daniel. Gently placing the hot cup on the bedside table, Jack sat next to Daniel on the bed and patted the comforter-covered knee. “So what’s your beef, Daniel?”

Daniel squinted at Jack, the tired lines around his eyes deepening. “Seriously, why am I here? Shouldn’t I be in the SGC infirmary?”

Jack sighed and watched his hand stroking along Daniel’s strong thigh, entranced by the way the comforter moved and molded with his pets. “I missed you, Daniel,” he said finally, looking up. “And we need to talk. We haven’t had any time together for quite a while, unless you count that lovely stint where you were a Prior.”

“I was only sort of a Prior,” Daniel protested weakly, reaching for his tea and taking a tentative sip. “Merlin – “

“Oh, yes, Merlin again! First there was Oma, and then Oma again, and then Merlin. Oh, and where’s Morgan le Fey in all this? And let’s not forget Adria, who’s doing her best to step up to the Higher Being Bar. What is wrong with you, Daniel?”

Daniel’s mouth dropped open, the teacup in his hands listing dangerously to one side. “What do you mean, what’s wrong with me? I’m just doing my job, Jack, you know that. You’ve only been there with me, doing that same job, for ten years, now!”

"It’s the dying, Daniel, the dying! The stupid, goddamn risks! Like they're party tricks! You can't keep pulling Ascended beings out of your ass! Pretty soon you'll either run out of Ascended beings, or run out of ass, AND I LIKE YOUR ASS THE WAY IT IS." Irritated, Jack rescued the teacup from Daniel and slammed it down on the bedside table, no longer as interested in the shape of Daniel’s legs as he had been a few minutes ago.

Daniel’s eyebrows rose, and a rather sheepish look flushed his cheeks. “Oh.”

Jack breathed heavily through his nose. “Yes. Oh.”

“Feeling neglected?”

“Fuck you,” Jack snapped and stood up to walk to the window. The sun was setting, casting dappled mosaics onto the ceiling.

“I assume I’ve been given the all-clear if I’m here with you?”

“What?” Jack looked at Daniel over his shoulder, trying not to let his irritation be tempered by the beautiful blue of Daniel’s eyes.

“What do I have to do, rest, eat well and properly, don’t overdose on the caffeine and try not to work too hard or too much? Otherwise I’ll be beamed back to the SGC and poked and prodded and made sure I’m not still the Evil Prior from Hell?” Daniel plumped the pillows behind him and settled in more comfortably.

Jack stared at Daniel who stared right back, jaw set mulishly.

“Well, yes,” Jack replied, the window curtain falling forgotten from his lax fingers.

“Then we can accommodate your request of “fuck you,”” Daniel said smartly, and folded his arms with a smug smile on his face.

Jack gaped for a moment, then closed his eyes in annoyance. “You’re so not hearing me,” he said, leaning back against the window and folding his own arms. “This isn’t a joke, Daniel. How many times am I supposed to wait on a phone call from Landry, telling me you’re dead because you took another chance that you’d somehow magically make it through the next mission?”

Daniel’s brows furrowed. “Wait, what? Are you suddenly feeling like the little woman, sitting by the phone?”

“Don’t be deliberately obtuse, and, also? Don’t be an asshole. You know I love you. You know it chaps my ass being half a country away from you where I can’t keep an eye on you.”

Daniel sat up straight, hands planted on either side of him on the mattress. “And who’s choice was that?” he flared. “I didn’t push you into going to DC! You’re the one who decided that he had to protect the whole goddamned world and left me going out there without you!”

“So this is my fault?” Jack retorted, kicking his heel into the wall.

“I don’t even know what we’re arguing about!” Daniel shouted, coming to his knees on the bed. “You’re pissed at me because I’m doing my job, but I can’t be pissed at you for doing your job, which left me alone?

Jack clenched the curtains in his fists and took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. Let me start over.” He joined Daniel on the bed, pushing him down onto his ass and taking those calloused hands in his. “Look. I started off on the wrong foot. But, Daniel … you were a Prior. Do you know how fucking terrified I was?”

Daniel’s face softened, and he stroked Jack’s fingers with his. “No more than I was,” he answered softly. “You don’t know what it was like in there, Jack. I had Merlin riding shotgun, and the Ori trying to completely subsume me.” Daniel was quiet a moment, staring down at his and Jack’s hands, fingers intertwined, dancing a subtle waltz as they wove together and clung to each other. “I almost lost myself in there, Jack,” Daniel said quietly. “It was so hard to remember who I was. Why do you think I beamed you up with me? It wasn’t just to help the plan. It was to help me. To help me remember myself, to help me keep myself anchored.” Daniel looked up, eyes glassy with unshed tears. “You’ve always been my anchor, even when I’ve been at my very flakiest.” He touched Jack’s mouth briefly, and the wired tension between Jack’s shoulders eased briefly.

Jack smiled faintly and pulled Daniel’s head onto his shoulder, stroking the soft brown hair, his other arm encircling Daniel’s shoulders. “And you … well … shit, I can’t compete with that amount of saccharine,” Jack replied, and Daniel huffed in amusement. “But you know how I feel about you. How I’ve always felt about you. From the first time I kissed you, to seeing you look like an escapee from Cirque du Soleil yesterday, it’s always been you, Daniel. Don’t you understand that?”

Short hair rubbed against Jack’s cheek as Daniel nodded. “I do. You’ve always been mine.”

“What about Vala?”

Daniel choked and drew back to look Jack in the eye. “Seriously? Are you seriously asking me about Vala?”

Jack looked vaguely discomfited. “Well, you know, you, and, well, she’s always doing her thing, and she … “

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Don’t be stupid. She drives me insane. Granted, she’s proven herself, she’s finding herself with the team, but me and her? I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a fork if I had to deal with her in a romantic situation. If anything, I think she and Teal’c would get along famously.”

“Poor Teal’c,” Jack said, smoothing back Daniel’s bed-head hair, “don’t wish that on him. He’s got enough to kel’no’reem about.”

There was silence for a moment, then Daniel said, “Jack, look. I can’t stop going out there while the Ori are still proselytizing and doing their lying deeds. And you have to be here. The best we can do is accept our choices and keep trying to make the best of it.”

“Don’t wanna,” Jack said petulantly.

Daniel sighed. “Neither do I. But we have no choice. At least until this Ori mess is finished.”

“And after that?”

“Then after that?” Daniel studied Jack’s face, the tanned skin with the healthy pink cheeks, the white hair, the eyes still brown as coffee beans. “Then we might want to think about taking what time we have left. Together.”

“Daniel, you know – “

Daniel stopped Jack with a hand across his mouth. “I’m not talking about quitting our jobs. But maybe finding a compromise that suits us both better. I’m getting really sick of airlines.”

Jack grinned. “Well, if we keep a ship with an Asgard transport beam in orbit all the time, that might be easily remedied.”

Daniel snorted and buried his face in Jack’s shoulder again. “That’s a blatant misuse of government facilities.”

“Don’t care. Really don’t care.” Jack pressed a kiss behind Daniel’s ear as he pulled the bedcovers close around Daniel. “I want you all the time. With me, irritating me, kissing me – “

“Fucking me,” Daniel put in, biting gently on Jack’s shoulder.

“Mmm, that, too,” Jack murmured, and slid his hands underneath Daniel’s scrub top, letting the warm skin soothe his chilled hands. “You’re it for me, Daniel. Have been since the first day I laid eyes on you,” he whispered. “Please. Stick around. Please.”

A sound almost like a whimper escaped Daniel’s throat and he moved his mouth from Jack’s shoulder to his neck, kissing gently, tasting the tanned skin with his tongue, leaving a wet track as he moved towards Jack’s jaw, his lips. Leaning back, he framed Jack’s face with his hands and kissed him deeply, as if trying to merge with him, savoring him, taking succor in him.

Daniel’s hands were gentle against Jack’s cheeks, the rough archaeologist’s pads tracing the line of cheekbone, of lip and eyebrow. With each delicate pass of those long, strong fingers, Jack felt the tension ease out of him, shard by broken shard. It was as if there was magic in Daniel’s hands, a magic that swept through Jack and cleansed his mind of the creosote of his fears, the desperate ashes that seemed to clog his lungs.

Tilting his head, Daniel moved to meet Jack’s lips, a press of flesh to flesh, soft and undemanding, a warm, simple reminder of life and love. Then the kiss deepened, lips parting, tongues slicking beside each other, teeth explored. Jack was hasty with Daniel’s scrub top, pulling the thin blue material over Daniel’s head and letting his hands drift over the broad shoulders, the muscled chest, the body that had become so much more over the past ten years.

Daniel made a little noise in the back of his throat and tugged at Jack’s own shirt, his head falling back as Jack kissed down his neck, tongue laving the dip between his clavicles, then moving on to lovingly taste and tease with teeth the pink buds of his nipples. “Jack,” Daniel groaned, pulling harder at Jack’s shirt, and Jack barely released him to yank his knit shirt off over his head.

And then there was more kissing, kisses everywhere, over hot pectoral skin, down the soft insides of elbows, tracing the lines of ribs, each and every rib, curving and hidden beneath firm flesh. Sweat broke out on Daniel’s forehead and Jack licked the dampness into his mouth, salty and yet somehow sweet, as only the sweat of a lover may be as nectar.

“Jack,” Daniel whispered, sliding his hands down the back of Jack’s pants, feeling flesh still firm, so warm and beloved. “Jack,” Daniel begged, tugging at Jack’s waistband, and Jack thought briefly that their bed was the only place and time that Daniel didn’t babble a mile a minute, as though the act of their lovemaking stymied his verbal skills, making the words too hard to corral, rendered them too limited to describe what they felt together.

Jack shimmied out of his pants and divested Daniel of his scrub bottoms, pressing Daniel into the mattress as he kissed more of that Descended flesh, the skin now a healthy pink, chasing out the memory of the pallid, diseased-looking Prior shell. With thankfulness, Jack worshipped Daniel’s hips, the tender flesh on the inside of the strong thighs, the backs of the knees, nipping down the long legs to the long feet. With relief, Jack sucked each toe into his mouth, his hands cradling the feet, listened as Daniel panted his name, watched as Daniel’s hands clenched the sheets.

“Love you, Daniel,” Jack murmured as he tasted his way back to Daniel’s groin, and slowly slid the length of Daniel’s penis into his mouth, sucking firmly, using his tongue, stroking Daniel’s hips and thighs with his fingertips. Daniel was almost whining, now, a hand on the back of Jack’s head, gently urging, trying to still his hips and let Jack do his work.

Scrabbling for the lube on the nightstand, Jack told Daniel, “You can move, Daniel,” and Daniel began a languid thrust into Jack’s mouth as Jack slicked up his fingers and ran them up Daniel’s perineum, up the to the small hole kept safe by the beautiful halves of Daniel’s perfect ass. With exquisite care, Jack slid one finger in that delicious hole, moving carefully, feeling the tremors ripple down Daniel’s body.

Daniel pulled at Jack’s hair. “You,” he gasped, and Jack shook his head, letting Daniel’s penis slide from his mouth for just a moment. “This is all for you, Daniel,” and he slid a second finger in.

Daniel groaned, deep in the back of his throat, his broad chest rising rapidly with his panting, Jack’s name a breathy mantra. “Love you, Jack.”

In response, Jack slid a third finger in and had to press hard on Daniel’s pelvis as Daniel surged upward, his body literally shaking with pleasure. Jack smiled and reached for that little hot button that had Daniel practically crying with joy.

Then Jack removed his fingers, released Daniel from his mouth and surged up Daniel’s body to kiss him deeply, thrusting in his tongue as his hips thrust against Daniel’s. Daniel wrapped his arms around Jack’s shoulders and didn’t fail to reciprocate, his tongue an enthusiastic partner in their dance, his long legs sliding around Jack’s waist.

“Do it, do it,” Daniel urged. “Hard, do it hard, Jack.”

“You sure?”

Licking Jack’s ear, Daniel whispered, “I need this as much as you do. Remind me of who I am, Jack.”

With one long fluid movement, Jack lifted Daniel’s legs, lined up, and slid in, feeling Daniel’s muscles tighten around him, fingernails digging into his back.

“Daniel,” Jack gritted, beginning a long, hard stroke that brooked no hesitation. “You’re here, you’re real, you’re mine, you’re mine, mine, mine.”

“Always love you,” Daniel murmured, flexing his hips to meet Jack’s thrusts, their cheeks pressed together, hot breath on each other’s necks. “Always, always, always.”

The air around them seemed to shimmer, laden with heat and the smell of sex. Jack thrust deeply into Daniel’s body, arms curved under Daniel’s shoulders, pulling Daniel onto him as he punched his pelvis into his lover’s groin. That tension in his heart grew less and less as Jack slid deeper and deeper into Daniel, feeling his lover’s hands on his head, stroking, clutching, those beautiful legs clenched tight around his waist.

Then Daniel passed his fingers over Jack’s eyes, blinding him, and the sensations intensified. All that existed was skin sliding on skin, into skin, muscles flexing and tightening, lips smearing across cheekbones and jawlines. “You’ll always make me real, Jack,” Daniel said right into his ear, those long fingers still covering Jack’s eyes, and they came, backs arching, hips snapping, hot liquid ribboning across pearlescent, human skin. Jack blinked against those fingers, that hand, reveling in the darkness through which Daniel seemed to shine like a beacon.

And somehow, with a pass of that hand, Daniel had made everything better. As if by magic.


End file.
